At least we can’t say Danny Ainge did nothing at Thursday NBA trade deadline.
We’ve got that going for us, which is nice.
But we also certainly can say the Celtics didn’t seem to do nearly enough to turn around a lackluster, floundering Boston basketball season that now has true Green Teamers turning their attention to the buyout market for some semblance of hope.
One simple word can describe what Ainge and the Celtics did at the trade deadline: underwhelming.
Sure it’s great that Ainge may have tried to make up for past mistakes failing to upgrade his team at the deadline – a year ago for example – by adding Magic veteran scorer Evan Fournier for the pittance of a pair of second-round picks. (I’ve been advised not to Google Fourier’s name, so I won’t. I follow orders or people die, apparently.)
Fournier is averaging nearly 20 ppg this season and has been a 37.6 percent three-point shooter for his career, including 38.8 percent on more than seven attempts per game this winter.
He adds bench scoring that’s much needed. Or given that he’s been nothing but a starter for the last six seasons in Orlando, maybe he bumps Marcus Smart to a bench role that’s seemingly better suited the feisty veteran over his career. Either way, Fournier adds spacing to the floor late in close games so that maybe, just maybe, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can actually touch the ball in the closing minutes. (Yup, that finish in Milwaukee the other night still grinds my gears.)
Moving on from Daniel Theis not only keeps the Celtics luxury tax books in order, but also clears some playing time for arguably Boston’s most exciting player this season, Rob “Lob” Williams. If you’re going to be a middling, underachieving team at least give us some dunks and blocked shots on the highlight reel!
And getting rid of offseason disaster signing Jeff Teague is a two-fold bonus -- we don’t have to watch him anymore while Payton Pritchard is now free to get more minutes from veteran-loyal boss Brad Stevens and hopefully return to his early season form that had him contributing with regularity off the bench.
After an offseason in which Myles Turner was apparently undesirable (Who would want the guy leading the NBA in blocks???!!) and Gordon Hayward departed in exchange for the record-setting overhyped hope of a $28 million trade exception, seeing Fournier arrive as the centerpiece of some season-saving roster shakeup is, again, underwhelming.
Remember when there were dreams of impact additions?
The TPE was the Golden Goose.
Well, the Golden Goose kinda laid an egg, although we will still apparently be sold a bill of goods that $11 million still remains for some offseason boon. Not gonna hold my breath on that one.
The 21-23 Celtics may be marginally better this morning than they were 24 hours ago. Marginally.
Their defense still stinks, though.
There are still plenty of questions swirling around whether their supposed superstar All-Star leaders in Brown and Tatum are truly good enough to compete at the highest level in the NBA or even the Eastern Conference.
There is no reason to think that Fournier – or Moe Wagner! – will be the impetus to change the Celtics current trajectory as the No. 8 seed in the East, closer to last place than they are to the top of the conference.
The Celtics are what they are. They’re not that good.
The have a still-flawed roster, curious at best team chemistry and questionable leadership.
Fournier obviously isn’t fixing all that. Not sure that anyone really could have at this point.
But hey, did you hear, Andre Drummond and ol’ friend Kelly Olynyk might be options on the buyout market.
So I guess we could have that going for us, which is nice.
And as decades of disappointed Red Sox fans will tell you, there is always next year!